I attended the Premiere of Pete’s Dragon on Monday, and am happy to report that it is the perfect family movie. The beginning is a little tough for kids as there is some form of loss, but we quickly meet a dragon who is not at all scary, and in fact rescues our main character, Pete (who has just been orphaned), when he becomes surrounded by wolves.
A reimagining of Disney’s cherished family film, “Pete’s Dragon” is the adventure of an orphaned boy named Pete and his best friend Elliot, who just so happens to be a dragon. “Pete’s Dragon” stars Bryce Dallas Howard (“Jurassic World”), Oakes Fegley (“This is Where I Leave You”), Wes Bentley (“The Hunger Games”), Karl Urban (“Star Trek”), Oona Laurence (“Southpaw”), Isiah Whitlock, Jr. (“Cedar Rapids”) and Oscar® winner Robert Redford (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”). The film, which is directed by David Lowery (“Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”), is written by Lowery & Toby Halbrooks based on a screenplay by Malcolm Marmorstein and produced by Jim Whitaker (“The Finest Hours,” “Friday Night Lights”), with Barrie M. Osborne (“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” “The Great Gatsby”) serving as executive producer.
Pete has very little with him when he is rescued by the dragon, and his main possession is his favorite book seen below, which is where the dragon’s name comes from:
Pete is barely five years old when he first meets Elliot the dragon, and the first thing he asks him is if he is going to hurt him. I loved how Pete was wary because he was talking to a dragon, but as soon as the dragon made overtures of friendship, Pete did not once act as if the dragon was a monster, like the townspeople seemed to think later on in the movie. I thought that lack of negative judgement was something we could all learn from!
I did wonder, was Elliot even real, or was he a figment of Pete’s imagination, an imaginary friend created so the Pete could keep calm in the face of severe adversity.
It seems there was an older gentlemen (Mr. Meacham) in the town who would chat about a mysterious dragon in the woods, which makes us wonder if he had met Elliot when he was younger.
For years, old wood carver Mr. Meacham (Robert Redford) has delighted local children with his tales of the fierce dragon that resides deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. To his daughter, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales…until she meets Pete (Oakes Fegley). Pete is a mysterious 10-year-old with no family and no home who claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliot. And from Pete’s descriptions, Elliot seems remarkably similar to the dragon from Mr. Meacham’s stories. With the help of Natalie (Oona Laurence), an 11-yearold girl whose father Jack (Wes Bentley) owns the local lumber mill, Grace sets out to determine where Pete came from, where he belongs, and the truth about this dragon.
It is always a treat to see Robert Redford on the big screen, he is a natural! And Bryce Dallas Howard (stay tuned for my interview recap with her!) was also a pleasure to watch! She knew exactly how to approach this poor, scared boy from the woods. She had a very nurturing way about her, constantly trying to talk to Pete in soothing tones, since civilization was something he hadn’t participated in, for almost six years.
Bryce’s love interest, played by Wes Bentley, and his daughter played by Oona Laurence, also work to make Pete more comfoprtable in the “real” world. Pete is slowly starting to realize he and Elliot are from different worlds.
Bryce and his brother Gavin own a lumber mill. While chopping down trees, Gavin and his crew stumble across this friendly dragon and assume the worst, they treat Elliot like he is a monster. Gavin and his men get chased away, and then return the next day to capture the beast. Gavin wants to take credit for the find of the century, while Pete and his friends want to keep Elliot free.
The ending was a real surprise for me, but I cannot spoil it for you, so you will have to get tickets for this weekend to see for yourself! I recommend this as a movie for the entire family, it is wholesome and while there might be a bad guy, he is not evil and there is nothing here that will scare the kids!
Disney’s “Pete’s Dragon” opens in U.S. theaters on August 12, 2016
Follow this dragon everywhere:
https://www.facebook.com/DisneyPetesDragon
https://twitter.com/disneypetes (#PetesDragon)
https://www.instagram.com/disneypetesdragon/
http://movies.disney.com/petes-dragon-2016
Disclosure: Disney invited me on this press trip and paid all of my expenses. No other compensation was received. All opinions are always 100% my own and honest.
I attended the World Premiere of Pete’s Dragon, please read all about that experience as well!
That looks like a great movie
This was such an amazing movie! I was so excited to share it with my family yesterday 🙂